


the lucky ones

by alaynerivers



Category: UnREAL (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 21:09:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9026020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alaynerivers/pseuds/alaynerivers
Summary: Rachel runs away with Adam. That doesn’t mean she’s happy.





	

Rachel is lounging on the beach with Adam on a remote island resort. It feels like Mexico did, when she was on location with Jeremy. Like a bubble about to pop.

 

When she got to Tahiti, the first thing Rachel did was buy a swimsuit. It was a plain black one-piece, and Adam was needling her the whole time about choosing something sexier.

“Come on, Rach. You’d look so hot in a bikini. And I’m paying, for Christ’s sake.”

At that, Rachel whips out her own credit card, the one that’s almost maxed out and pays for the damn bathing suit herself. She’s tempted to whip out a feminist quip to go along with it, but she refrains.

Adam goes for soothing and charming (“I mean, you always are attractive. You know how much I want you.”), and she lets him.

Rachel is along for this ride, but she’s not sure how willing she is to enjoy it. And like she’d let Adam pick out her clothes.

 

At the hotel, Adam pulls out his scary looking credit card, translucent and platinum and gold. Rachel smirks up at him and snorts. “There’s the poor little rich boy I know and love.”

Adam raises his eyebrow at that. “Care to repeat that, darling?”

It’s harder to control Adam and avoid his questions now that she’s not his producer. Then again, Rachel’s main talent in life is manipulation. She spins around to face him, puts her hand around his neck, and breathes the answer into his chest.

“I’m glad I’m here with you, you know.” Rachel may or may not know if she’s lying.

Adam smiles down at her, a mixture of kindness and mocking. “If you say so, Rachel.”

 

Lying in a bed on a luxury resort, Rachel breathes and tries to make everything stop spinning. She feels fresh and new, but also something like milk that’s gone off or a bird underwater. She has showered in the past two days and her hair is in a neat ponytail and no one is barking orders in her ear. It feels wrong. Adam is the only person here who she’s even talking to. She avoids human beings. She feels free, but also like she is no longer tethered to earth. Something like floating and something like vanishing.

 

Rachel doesn’t know if she can live without her constraints. She wants the power she had, and she never wants to think about the desire to hurt people again.

 

Being with Adam is not a fairytale, exactly. Rachel likes him and wants him. But more than that, she understands him. Adam is jumping off another wagon, and avoiding all consequences of his actions. This is the second time Rachel is jumping off her own wagon in one year. At the same time, Rachel can’t help but wonder why Adam wanted to take her with him for the fall.

It doesn’t matter, she supposes. She wanted to jump.

 

They eventually do have sex on the beach. It was bound to happen, but the sand is everywhere. It tucks itself behind Rachel’s knees and ears, into every fold of skin, and she curses herself for initiating right now. She should know better, she thinks. Sex on the beach is even a shitty as a drink. Adam is not totally oblivious to this, though. He makes sure to make it worth her while, and no one interrupts them.

 

Rachel feels light, today, odd but not off. Adam swims out with her, into the ocean. “You go out farther in the water than anyone else I’ve ever swum with.”

Rachel shrugs. “It’s more fun like this. More of a challenge.”

“Was I just a challenge?”

“No.” Rachel is surprised that that is true. “You were… you were like me.”

Adam looks at her slowly and nods, and then proceeds to throw his body into another wave. Rachel lets the water carry her, like she always has. Adam kisses her when she comes up for air.

 

Rachel does not know how to be happy. Running away from her problems with someone else’s so-called prince does not change this fact. 

Maybe she’s less lonely. Maybe that's enough for now.


End file.
